Ranchi: The five women associated with an NGO who were gang-raped on gunpoint in Khunti district on June 19 were asked to leave with the accused by the Missionary school’s Head said Jharkhand Police officer.
The Additional Director General of Police R K Malik denied that the Missionary school’s head Father Alfonso Alien was being framed in the matter, and said there were “concrete evidences” against him in the case, PTI reported.
The Jharkhand Police has refuted against framing the school head in the case a day after Bishop Mascarenhas, the General Secretary of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI), had told the reporters that Father Alfonso was allegedly being framed.
The Jharkhand Police has booked Father Alfonso on June 22 for not reporting the incident to the Police. The Police released him on a personal bond after preliminary interrogation while two others spotted during an identification parade were also arrested on the night of June 22. They were sent to judicial custody. Their arrest was based on strong evidences said Malik.
“The police never takes action on the basis of religion or caste. They do it within the framework of the law and the police have done the same in the case of the gangrape,” Malik said.
“The allegations are completely false as Father Alfonso had called the troupe to perform a play in the missionary school. When the criminals came, Father Alfonso asked them to leave out the nuns and told the five women to go with the culprits for two hours,” Malik said.
The ADG said the accused also indulged in “unnatural acts” with the three men who had accompanied the men.
“After four hours, when the women were taken back to the missionary, Father Alfonso had advised them not to report the matter to the police,” Malik added.
The ADG also claimed that Father Alfonso went to Khunti the very next day and told the women victims not to report the incident or else the lives of their relatives would be in danger.
“His (Father Alfonso) conduct before and after the incident itself is clear evidence of the missionary’s involvement,” he said.
“The victims, the assaulted men and both the criminals have narrated the entire incident under Section 164 of CrPC and confirmed Father Alfonso’s involvement,” Malik added.